Rider of the week: Lizzy’s big race

The rider of the week is a little bit different this week. Rather than chasing someone down on 4th Avenue, I wanted to highlight Lizzy Caputo.

Lizzy is 1415 years old and a member of El Grupo. Yesterday she participated in the University of Arizona Criterium, twice. She raced the youth division and finished first, trouble is, there was only one place to get because she was the only girl that entered the race. That wasn’t good enough for Lizzy, so she entered a second race and lined up with Category 3, 4 and Master’s women racers.

Two women broke away from the group during the 30 minute race and didn’t look back, but Lizzy was in the chase group. Eventually the group shrunk to four women, but every time around the course Lizzy was still with them, sometimes barely holding on, sometimes pulling the group.

With one lap to go, Lizzy was still with the chase group. The first and second-place riders were long gone, but third place was still up for grabs and Lizzy was in the mix.

As the riders came into the last turn, Lizzy dove to the corner and passed the three other riders. She came out ahead and started to sprint. It looked like she might have gone too early and she was going to get caught, but she kept pedaling as hard as she could and she managed to out-sprint the three other riders for third place.

Congrats to Lizzy and here’s to hoping more girls start racing so Lizzy will have some competition her own age.

Check back on Monday for more photos and video from Saturday’s criterium.

Way to go Lizzy!!!!! Good use of tactics and your strenghts. Race with teh older groups more often, you'll only get stronger.....and smarter about your racing. Soon you'll learn how to sprint off the front with a couple of other strong riders.